Gairloch pelagic- the Minch.

A boat trip in the Minch is always fun and with recent reports of Orcas and Sabines' gulls to whet the appetite I jumped at the chance of a place on the Hebridean whale cruise 'Orca 1'- a large fast RIB designed to cover big distances at speed. The weather and sea conditions were ideal- flat calm with good visibility although the light was very flat due to the hazy conditions. Within 15 minutes of setting sail we were surrounded by a pod of circa 500 common dolphins that obligingly played around the vessel providing outstanding views. A short while later we watched a minke whale- the first of 5 encountered during our trip. Harbour porpoises seemed to be every where. Birds were not as abundant as I had hoped but we recorded sooty shearwaters, manx shearwaters, an arctic skua, a possible long-tailed skua and 3 pomarine skuas. Great skuas were abundant as were over 50 storm petrels. Unfortunately no orcas or Sabs. were seen but we also saw a pair of bonus white-tailed eagles on the return leg and a flock of 28 black-throated divers. 

sooty shearwater

sooty shearwater

common dolphins

common dolphin

common dolphins

minke whale

white-tailed eagle

Black country blues

Thanks to a 3 hour Aer Lingus flight delay in Cork I missed my connecting flight home so have to spend a night in a rather seedy Birmingham airport hotel......won't mention the name in case they take legal action but the initials are H.I. - can't believe I had to wait in my room for 4 hours while they sorted out a problem with the electronic door key- eventually I demanded a different room! Anyway, a chance to post some final snapshots from my Porcupine sea bight survey ( and have a beer or three!). Hopefully I will make it home tomorrow and get back to some much needed local patch birding.

long-finned pilot whales 

one of my last recorded Cory's- simply stunning!

a delicately dancing great shearwater

a nice comparison- fulmar & great shear

common dolphin- underwater shot!

a very tasty sandwich

Not much to report on the migration front with stiff NW winds currently halting the passage of passerines, with the exception of a solo swallow. A few pom skuas and several arctic skuas have been noted pushing north but unfortunately they have all been rather ship-shy and not been close enough for photo. attempts. Sandwich tern passage remains fairly steady with a dozen or so recorded most days. One individual did a wonderful close pass and allowed me to get some decent flight shots- a very nice bird! The real highlight however was a raft of grey phalaropes- I watched them resting and apparently feeding on a surface slick for 5 minutes or so before they resumed their northward flight- cracking birds! Aside from that I have been treated to a good number of common dolphins swimming around the vessel.

distant raft of grey (red) phalaropes

Vis mig begins!

My fondest birding memories are of looking for spring migrants on the south coast of England- in particular searching a headland such as the Lizard in Cornwall or Portland Bill, Dorset- oooh the excitement of watching multiple lbj's come in off the sea! Saw my first hoopoe at Portland in April 1981 (along with Black kite, woodchat shrike, pied fly, etc. making a brilliant day) so it is always good to see one. Migration has kicked in here off Morocco- small numbers trickling through but all the birds are heading north, presumably for Europe and the British isles. Over the last week there has been a light,  steady passage of bonxies and sandwich terns. More recently several distant flocks of waterfowl have been recorded plus a distant, probable red-rumped swallow. Yesterday 3 chiffchaffs and a hoopoe briefly visited the vessel before continuing north. This morning at first light another unidentified leaf warbler and a chat sp. were flushed and a second hoopoe was seen flying past- exciting times! Hopefully the tempo of passage will increase over the coming weeks as will the number of species encountered.

I have also been lucky to see plenty of common dolphins, a sunfish and a small (circa 2.5 metre) basking shark.

hoopoe

ocean sunfish

basking shark

common dolphin